Shoe-sole.



T. C. REDFERN.

sHoE soLE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE I6, 1916.

1,255,107. A Patented Jan. 29,1918.

THOMAS CROMPTONREDFERN, 0F HYDE, ENGLAND.

` suon-Sonn. i

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 29, 191s.

Application filed-June 16, 1916.4 Serial No. 104,005.

is used for making shoe soles, the soles, areliable to crack across atthe place where the maximum bending occurs, particularly -if thematerial has been rolled out so that the fibers are in the maintransverse to the sole.A

One contributory cause of this cracking is also that the material isliable to expandL where the bending occurs, and ultimately some airbecomes imprisoned between the composition sole and the middle sole ofthe shoe, this air tending to stretch the material and to balloon it bythe constant action of walking. l

This ditiiculty is overcome in the improved article formin the subjectof the present application which has all the necessary flexibility andexcellent wearing qualities. The fibrous material may consist forinstance of disintegrated rubber backing material from worn-out motortires, or any other comparatively inexpensive iibrous material with somewaste rubber if required, and with a comparatively small .proportion ofindiarubber or gutta-percha and hardening or vulcanizing agents. Thismaterial vis rolled'- out into sheets, therolling being always effectedin one direction so that the bers lie mainly longitudinally to thesheet. The risk of cracking in the shoe soles iseliminate'd partly bybuilding up the material forthe sole in layers placed successively sothat the fibers in some layers lie transversely to the fibers in theother layers, and partly by ema bedding a layer of canvas in the solenear to 'the upper or inner surface thereof so as t0 resist .stretchingat this surface. 4Experi-V ments have shown that a ve-ply sole givesexcellent results; the sheets of fibrous material'having the fibersrunning principally in one direction, are rolled out to; la thicknessaboutV one-ffth of the ultimate thickness required for the shoe soles,and the sheets so formed are cut into squares which are laid so that thefibersl are 1n one direction in one square and in a cross direction inthe next square.. In the first, thirdv and fifth.y layers the fibers arein one direction, and in the second and'fourth they are in the otherdirection. The soles are cut from this'sheet so that the bers lie acrossthe sole in the rst, third and fifth layers, while they only lielongitudinally in the second and fourth layers. The cutting is effectedin the usual way by knives or dies in a press, the material so cut beinglaid in the molds. The top layer which will form the. upper or innersurface of the sole when vulcanized, is lifted up in the mold, a pieceof canvas cut to the required shape is inserted, and the top layer islaid down again. Theri'the material is vulcanized by heating in molds,preferably under high pressure so that in-the finished article thecanvas is embedded in the sole between the rst and second layersthereof. The canvas is preferably cut so that its edge comes say aquarter of an inch from the edge of the sole everywhere except at therear part or waist where the sole is chamfered ofi", but at that partthe canvas may come right up to the edge of the material.

lThe object. of cutting the canvas so that'liit.

shall not come up to the edgesin the other parts of the 'sole is toprevent canvasshow-gl ing around the edges and to leave them with*surface during wea-r, or of course it can be vstitched or riveted to themiddle sole or welt.

The soles may be made up both forQitting to new boots wherein the waistportlon extends back into the heel, and also for repairing purposes whenthe waist portion is chamfered olf. The soles are molded to any desiredcurvature suitable for fitting directly to they insole andto present thedesired formation -on the wearing surface.

In the accompanying drawin Figure 1- is a plan view of a shoe sole ma eup pairing purposes, and Fig. 2 is a side view thereof, while Fig. 3shows a cross section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. v

In Fig. l the top layer a of the fibrous material is shown turned backat the tip to expose the insertion b of canvas. ln the sectional viewFig. 3 the top layer a is the one which is cemented to the middle soleor welt of the boot, and directly beneath this is the insertion ofcanvas b, while c, d, e and f are the remaining layers of the fibrousmaterial. In the layers a, d and f the iibers run transversely to thesole, while in the layers c and e they run longitudinally for example.

The invention is not limited -to the Inaking of soles of five-plymaterial with the canvas inserted beneath the top layer exactly as aboveset forth, although experiments seem to indicate that this is the bestconstruction. Any desired number of layers .may be used, and in somecases there may be two layers together with the ibers lying the' sameway therein according to the result which it is desired to attain. rl`heembedding of the canvas in the material near to the upper surface is amatter of vital importance however, as is also the use of some layers ofthe `material with the fibers lying transversely to the fibers in otherlayers. The bers need not necessarily lie exactly transversely andlongitudinally in the respective layers, but they may lie somewhatdiagonally while still attaining the desired result. The canvasinsertion may also be of any shape or size according to requirements.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:-

As an article of manufacture, a shoe sole consisting of a number oflayers of brous material disposed with the flbers in one layer lyingsubstantially transversely to the fibers in another, and a layer ofcanvas inserted between the upper layer of fibrous material and the nextlayer, the whole being vulcan` ized together under pressure.

THMASYCROMPTON REDFERN.

